Amazon "Buy for Me" and Shop Direct: What Brands Need to Know and How to Opt Out

Buy for Me is an Amazon test in which a shopper taps a button in the Amazon Shopping app and Amazon uses AI to buy the product from the brand's own website. Amazon piloted it with a select group of US users on iOS and Android, as reported on 4 April 2025. In January 2026 Modern Retail reported that some US brands found their products listed without having opted in, and Amazon told the publication that businesses can opt out by emailing branddirect@amazon.com. We found no source confirming Buy for Me in India as of November 2026.

What is Amazon Buy for Me?

According to the April 2025 report, search results for a brand can include Amazon and third-party offers plus a section for items from other brand sites. Tapping "Buy for me" has Amazon buy the product from the brand's website using AI. The brand's own store sends the order confirmation, and the shopper tracks it in a "Buy for Me Orders" tab. Amazon said the first phase covered a small number of brand stores and items.

Modern Retail adds that Amazon passes encrypted payment and shipping details to the brand's website, and describes Buy for Me as a test. The key point for a brand: the sale happens on your store, through your checkout, but the customer relationship starts in Amazon's app.

How is Buy for Me different from Shop Direct?

Modern Retail describes Shop Direct as a separate button that links shoppers to brand sites. Buy for Me completes the purchase on the shopper's behalf. Amazon runs both in the same shopping results, labelled as coming from "other brands".

Amazon's statement as reported was that businesses can opt out of "these programs" by email.

What did brands complain about?

The Modern Retail article, published 6 January 2026, quotes several US sellers:

• Orders arrived for items that were out of stock or discontinued, fulfilled through the brand's own Shopify store.
• One brand said about 4,000 of its products were listed and that around 16 orders had come in since November 2025.
• Some brands found incomplete "shell" listings after takedown, and stock photos that did not match the product.
• A wholesale seller worried that password-protected wholesale products were purchasable and that wholesale pricing was exposed.
• A survey by one brand owner reported 145 responses from brands who said they did not consent.

These are individual accounts reported by one publication. Amazon did not, in that article, say how many brands were affected.

Is Buy for Me available in India?

We found no Amazon announcement or credible report of Buy for Me, or Shop Direct, in India as of 9 November 2026. All merchants in the Modern Retail article were US-based, and the April 2025 launch was for select US users. Amazon India's own Rufus page, which lists the shopping assistant's features, does not mention Buy for Me, and neither does its Seller Assistant announcement for sellers. Treat this as not available in India until Amazon says otherwise, and check again before festive planning. Our agentic commerce guide covers what is actually live in India.

Why does Amazon do this?

Amazon's stated aim, quoted in April 2025, is to help customers find and buy products from other brand stores when Amazon does not sell those items. For shoppers it keeps the search inside one app. For brands it is a new traffic source that they did not set up and cannot fully see. The same reporting says it runs on Amazon Bedrock with foundation models including Amazon Nova and Anthropic's Claude.

Modern Retail also reported context: Amazon has blocked third-party AI crawlers and sent a cease-and-desist to Perplexity over its Comet shopping agent, while promoting its own tools such as Rufus and Buy for Me. Analyst Juozas Kaziukenas told the publication it is "not built on partnerships" and "not built on integrations". That tension, Amazon's agent reading your site while Amazon blocks others, is why brands are asking for consent.

What should a brand do?

1. Search for your brand in the Amazon Shopping app, not just on desktop, and look for "other brands" results.
2. Decide whether you want it. Some brands may welcome extra reach. Make it a choice, not an accident.
3. If you do not, email branddirect@amazon.com from a brand-owner address, naming the store domain and asking to be removed from Buy for Me and Shop Direct. Keep a copy of the email.
4. Check your store for orders with unfamiliar sources, and be ready to cancel orders you cannot fulfil.
5. Fix stock sync. Out-of-stock items should show as unavailable on your site so an agent cannot order them.
6. Review your terms. Make sure your returns, shipping and wholesale terms apply to orders from third-party agents. This is general information, not legal advice; ask a lawyer for IP or contract questions.

What can Indian brands do now?

Even without a local launch, the lesson holds. If you run a Shopify store, check your product feed for outdated items, hide wholesale or password-protected pages from crawlers, and set a clear robots policy. Modern Retail notes that Shopify has added a default robots and agent policy to block unauthorised AI scraping. Compare the marketplace route in Shopify vs marketplace in India. For selling on Amazon India directly, see Brand Registry India.

What is still unclear?

• Whether Amazon will bring Buy for Me to India, and on what terms.
• How many brands have opted out.
• Whether the opt-out covers every future agent-style programme.
• How refunds and returns are handled when Amazon's agent placed the order. Brands reported complications but Amazon has not published a policy that we could open.

FAQ

What is Amazon Buy for Me? A pilot in the Amazon Shopping app where Amazon buys a product from a brand's own website for the shopper using AI. It was reported on 4 April 2025 as a pilot for select US users. The brand's store sends the order confirmation.

Is Buy for Me available in India? We found no evidence it is. Reports and Amazon's announcement concern the US. Amazon India's Rufus feature page does not mention it. Check Amazon India's announcements before festive season.

How do I opt out of Buy for Me? Amazon told Modern Retail that businesses can opt out at any time by emailing branddirect@amazon.com. Send it from a brand-owner address with your store domain. Amazon said it removes businesses promptly.

Did Amazon ask brands for permission? Several US brands told Modern Retail they never opted in and had no idea the programme existed. Amazon's stated route is opt-out, not opt-in. A brand owner interviewed said sellers should not be opted in automatically.

Does Buy for Me need me to sell on Amazon? No. It lists products from brand sites that Amazon does not sell, per the April 2025 report. That is why brands without an Amazon account were surprised.

Can I block it technically? Amazon says the email opt-out works. Robots rules may also limit crawlers, but we found no Amazon statement on whether Buy for Me respects them, so do not rely on robots alone.

Next step

Decide deliberately where your products appear, and keep Amazon, Shopify and other channels consistent. Blooprint's Amazon account management team helps D2C brands manage their Amazon presence. Blooprint is a Bengaluru e-commerce agency and an Amazon SPN verified partner.